“Do Not Be Afraid … You Are My Dearest Friends”*
Toxic Fear is perhaps life’s greatest hostage-taker. One psychiatrist calls it a “disease of the imagination.” Fear and disabling Worry can start off like a tiny seed and, watered by thoughts that emphasize worst-case scenarios, grow into a virus-like fiend that ends up dominating our mental state. It then holds us back from our ability to enjoy nearly every dimension of our life: our talents, our work, our love, our play, and our approach to a life in the Spirit.
This website is dedicated to three major Defense Systems that can be effective in helping us overcome the insidious nature of fear, as well as other mental health demons like depression. It will also focus on how we can better live out our lives free of those persistent foragers that roam throughout the corners of our minds… relentlessly haunting us.
Those three Defense Systems are: Spirituality, Psychology and Addiction. All three of these provide newly developed means of delving into the root causes of fear and depression and other mental health disorders, and assisting people in finding improved pathways to freedom, joy, and peace.
“Do not be afraid” – a phrase found 365 times in Sacred Scripture!
*Luke 12:32; translation found in The Bible in Contemporary Language, Eugene H. Peterson
Pigs Fly. People walk on walls. Catfish play the trumpet. All among things that are impossible, most would agree. Then there are the theoretical or apparent impossibilities. World Peace. Democrats …
Many of you, when studying physics or math, may recall learning about Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, philosopher, physicist and theologian who lived from 1623 to 1662. Pascal came up …
In “Darkest Hour,” a Netflix movie about Second World-War England, Winston Churchill – the frumpish prime minister who rallied his country to resist the Nazis – told King George VI: …
This blog, as they say in show biz, is partly an encore performance; that is, it’s partly from a Thanksgiving blog I wrote in 2016. (Hey, the blog is free!) …
Pardon me if I’ve told this story before. On one of my trips to rural El Salvador with fellow parishioners from Iowa, I was walking down a dirt road – …
I recently attended a presentation on Francis of Assisi’s influence on Pope Francis and his environmental encyclical by a theologian who tossed out an astonishing figure that should give us pause on...
Very thoughtful reflection on the Bishop’s meeting in Baltimore taking place this week. Reflections on the USCCB Meeting, Part II
Important article on the devastating crisis of human trafficking by Crux. Crux:Nuns who rescue sex slaves expand efforts to 140 countries
Readers who don’t know me can tell by my picture at www.skepticfaith.blogspot.com, as well as by what I write, that I’m no spring chicken. Although I’m blessed with good...
“My kingdom does not belong to this world.” Jn. 18:35 In the year 313 AD, a remarkable and historic event took place – a happening that significantly changed history....
Norman J. Ornstein writes a provocative article in the New York Times concerning the world of mental health: How to Help Save the Mentally Ill From Themselves
Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J. discusses this pertinent issue in article in National Catholic Reporter. Francis’ priorities vs. the priorities of the U.S. bishops
John Allen reports on Why Vatican Conspiracy Theories Never Go Out of Style. Why Vatican conspiracy theories never go out of style
